Talking Heads' More Songs About Buildings and Food Poll

That's the '77 cover, aint it?

― WmC, Wednesday, 11 February 2009 03:34 (4 years ago) Permalink

Take Me to the River...I think. I should really listen to this album again.

― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 11 February 2009 03:35 (4 years ago) Permalink

yeah it's the back cover, i googled More Songs... and got that.

― Bee OK, Wednesday, 11 February 2009 03:37 (4 years ago) Permalink

the big country, in a big country,

― get drunk and do legos (contenderizer), Wednesday, 11 February 2009 03:43 (4 years ago) Permalink

All beautiful and strange in their own eays, but "Stay Hungry" gets my vote for the eerie fade-out: the jittery guitar, Tina's bass pokes, and Eno's synth.

― The Screaming Lobster of Challops (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 11 February 2009 03:43 (4 years ago) Permalink

Warning Sign

― WmC, Wednesday, 11 February 2009 04:14 (4 years ago) Permalink

thank you for sending me an angel

― Charlie Howard, Wednesday, 11 February 2009 04:19 (4 years ago) Permalink

Impossible. The best I can do is say that I wouldn't vote for "With Our Love" or "The Girls Want to Be With the Girls," but I don't think I can narrow it down any further.

― Hideous Lump, Wednesday, 11 February 2009 04:22 (4 years ago) Permalink

1 Warning Sign
2 Artists Only
3 I'm Not in Love
4 Stay Hungry
5 With Our Love
6 The Big Country
7 Thank You for Sending Me an Angel
8 The Girls Want to Be With the Girls
9 Take Me to the River
10 Found a Job
11 The Good Thing

― WmC, Wednesday, 11 February 2009 04:32 (4 years ago) Permalink

Found a Job. Probably my favorite short-story song, and that outro.

― Lie Bot, Wednesday, 11 February 2009 04:43 (4 years ago) Permalink

I'm Not In Love

― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 11 February 2009 04:45 (4 years ago) Permalink

Found a Job, followed closely by Thank You for Sending Me an Angel and I'm Not In Love

― dan selzer, Wednesday, 11 February 2009 05:31 (4 years ago) Permalink

I'd like to be less obvious and vote "Stay Hungry," but really, it's "Take Me To The River." I could play this 100 times in a row and get excited each time.

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 11 February 2009 05:54 (4 years ago) Permalink

DAMN THAT TELEVISION

― Matos W.K., Wednesday, 11 February 2009 06:41 (4 years ago) Permalink

I have adopted this and made it my own:
Cut back the weakness, reinforce what is strong.

― DustyLoops, Wednesday, 11 February 2009 06:56 (4 years ago) Permalink

Yeah really! VERY easily "The Good Thing" which is probably by favorite Heads song apart from that "woman's hips" one (the name of which always escapes me cuz it's not called "Woman's Hips"). The climactic "watch me work!" section is the most kinetic moment in their catalogue and proof positive that Byrne viewed "wasting precious time" negatively.

― Kevin John Bozelka, Wednesday, 11 February 2009 07:50 (4 years ago) Permalink

11 The Good Thing = wtf???

― Kevin John Bozelka, Wednesday, 11 February 2009 07:51 (4 years ago) Permalink

DAMN THAT TELEVISION

― Matos W.K., Wednesday, February 11, 2009 6:41 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Was going to post exactly this!

― Mark G, Wednesday, 11 February 2009 07:52 (4 years ago) Permalink

xxpost

Actually, that end should read something like: proof positive that Byrne viewed a time-efficient work ethic negatively.

― Kevin John Bozelka, Wednesday, 11 February 2009 07:54 (4 years ago) Permalink

"I'm Not In Love", with "Found A Job" hot on its heels. TH sound/feel so intense on this album.

― willem, Wednesday, 11 February 2009 08:05 (4 years ago) Permalink

11 The Good Thing = wtf???

Yeah, I was trying to do that and play a poker tournament at the same time. I'd put it #6.

― WmC, Wednesday, 11 February 2009 14:39 (4 years ago) Permalink

this was the second album i fully digested by the Heads and is still my favorite. this, however, is a fluid situation as i'm still going through their catalog. i'm now convinced that they are one of the best bands ever!

voting for "The Big Country"

― Bee OK, Thursday, 12 February 2009 03:39 (4 years ago) Permalink

i live in Los Angeles, BTW.

― Bee OK, Thursday, 12 February 2009 03:41 (4 years ago) Permalink

For me it's the first song versus the last song.

― Eazy, Thursday, 12 February 2009 05:44 (4 years ago) Permalink

If your work isnt what you love, then something isnt right. If your work isnt what you love, then something isnt right. If your work isnt what you love, then something isnt right. If your work isnt what you love, then something isnt right. If your work isnt what you love, then something isnt right. If your work isnt what you love, then something isnt right. If your work isnt what you love, then something isnt right. If your work isnt what you love, then something isnt right. If your work isnt what you love, then something isnt right. If your work isnt what you love, then something isnt right. If your work isnt what you love, then something isnt right. If your work isnt what you love, then something isnt right. If your work isnt what you love, then something isnt right. If your work isnt what you love, then something isnt right. If your work isnt what you love, then something isnt right. If your work isnt what you love, then something isnt right. If your work isnt what you love, then something isnt right. If your work isnt what you love, then something isnt right. If your work isnt what you love, then something isnt right.

― dan selzer, Thursday, 12 February 2009 08:44 (4 years ago) Permalink

apply it to your life

― willem, Thursday, 12 February 2009 08:54 (4 years ago) Permalink

bump

― Bee OK, Saturday, 14 February 2009 05:27 (4 years ago) Permalink

Found A Job.

― iago g., Saturday, 14 February 2009 06:24 (4 years ago) Permalink

DAMN THAT TELEVISION

― Matos W.K.

Was going to post exactly this!

― Mark G

I can't really think of another song that immediately jumpstarts as effectively as "Found a Job". I love how everyone plays like they're walking a tightrope for the first 3 minutes, before the amazing closing instrumental section where Jerry Harrison looses those little plucking guitar lines. I was just watching this clip from 1978...

...and it reminded me that as cool as their touring lineup for Fear of Music onwards was, there are certain Talking Heads songs (like this one) that benefit from not having dozens of people onstage, auxiliary percussion, backup singers/dancers, another guitar player, keyboards, etc. I love certain aspects of their expanded lineup's sound, but I'm fairly certain my favorite Talking Heads era will remain the early stripped down stuff.

― I shall always respect my elders (Z S), Saturday, 14 February 2009 16:22 (4 years ago) Permalink

I heard somewhere that the final section of Found a Job was a nod to Minimalism, like John Adams and Nixon in China...anybody know any more?

― iago g., Saturday, 14 February 2009 19:57 (4 years ago) Permalink

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

― System, Sunday, 15 February 2009 00:01 (4 years ago) Permalink

Thank You for Sending Me an Angel

― nicky lo-fi, Sunday, 15 February 2009 00:28 (4 years ago) Permalink

1. This is too hard. I dearly, truly, and eternally adore this album.
2. Tina Weymouth was wearing a pink hooded sweatshirt I'm pretty sure, drinking MILK before the show when I saw them play at SUNY Binghamton campus in 1978. RICHARD BELZER was the opening act. One of the songs that played on the PA before the show was THE ROBOTS by KRAFTWERK.
3. The musical interplay on this record is deliriously beautiful in a way that I have never heard anywhere else, including any of the other Talking Heads records.
4. OK, Found A Job is my favorite.

― Dr. Joseph A. Ofalt, Sunday, 15 February 2009 04:04 (4 years ago) Permalink

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

― System, Monday, 16 February 2009 00:01 (4 years ago) Permalink

I can't believe "Artists Only" only got one vote. Otherwise pretty fair.

― Hideous Lump, Monday, 16 February 2009 01:00 (4 years ago) Permalink

One of the weirder polls so far.

― Bad Banana On Broadway (kenan), Monday, 16 February 2009 01:15 (4 years ago) Permalink

Other than First, Second, and Fourth picks (or Tracks 6,10, and 10) all the songs on this record I find completely interchangeable

― iago g., Monday, 16 February 2009 02:19 (4 years ago) Permalink

6, 10, and 1

― iago g., Monday, 16 February 2009 02:19 (4 years ago) Permalink

I'm surprised "Warning Sign" got so little love. That's probably my second fav on here.

― I shall always respect my elders (Z S), Monday, 16 February 2009 03:28 (4 years ago) Permalink

results aren't surprising at all in the sense that well over half the votes went to the 3 songs that were played in Stop Making Sense.

― z8080 smith (some dude), Monday, 16 February 2009 04:38 (4 years ago) Permalink

wow funny results.

― piscesx, Monday, 16 February 2009 05:59 (4 years ago) Permalink

I thought The Big Country would get more votes.

― kornrulez6969, Monday, 16 February 2009 06:08 (4 years ago) Permalink

I wouldn't call the songs interchangeable, and I think the results here are an anomaly based on so few people voting. "Found a Job" is fine, but... what?

I'm surprised "Warning Sign" got so little love. That's probably my second fav on here.

The hands-down scariest track. "Psycho Killer" has nothin' on it.

Your glassy eyes and your open mouth
Take it easy baby, take it easy,
It's a natural thing and you have to relax,
I've got money now, I've got money now.

― Bad Banana On Broadway (kenan), Monday, 16 February 2009 10:02 (4 years ago) Permalink

Actually, every lyric on this album is written through the POV of a total sociopath. If this is the only Talking Heads record you ever heard, you'd start investigating David Byrne for unsolved murders. He just hates people the whole way through it.

― Bad Banana On Broadway (kenan), Monday, 16 February 2009 10:10 (4 years ago) Permalink

Or at least reduces them to math.

― Bad Banana On Broadway (kenan), Monday, 16 February 2009 10:11 (4 years ago) Permalink

But... that's why I love it. Don't get me wrong... I do not share Byrne's apparent views on love and life and work, and I do not imagine that he does, either, not at all. He's weird, yeah, but the lyrics on this record are NUTS. And that's kind of what it is, as a record -- it's the record where David is a sociopath. He meant it that way. Him and his weird Eno friend.

― Bad Banana On Broadway (kenan), Monday, 16 February 2009 10:19 (4 years ago) Permalink

People who think "art rock" is Rush doing a Coleridge poem are bloody morons.

― Bad Banana On Broadway (kenan), Monday, 16 February 2009 10:23 (4 years ago) Permalink

Hang on wooah he doesnt hate anyone on FOUND A JOB. Quite the opposite.

― piscesx, Monday, 16 February 2009 11:35 (4 years ago) Permalink

No, he's very happy for the people who found something better to do than watching TV... by making TV shows. Way to break free of those constraints, etc.

― Bad Banana On Broadway (kenan), Monday, 16 February 2009 11:55 (4 years ago) Permalink

It's reaaaal condescending, if not hateful.

― Bad Banana On Broadway (kenan), Monday, 16 February 2009 11:57 (4 years ago) Permalink

Byrne seems to have made at least half a career of sounding enthusiastic about things he thinks are fascinatingly beneath him. "Portable buildings were the dream of every 20th century architect, only they didn't know they were having it!"

― Bad Banana On Broadway (kenan), Monday, 16 February 2009 12:29 (4 years ago) Permalink

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/sevenages/artists/talking-heads/

Click 'watch the short film' there and he has a few things to say on the subject of the lyrics.
He says he's 'half sincere half ironic' but points out that he didn't want to sneer at the average person as some would do.

Is 'don't get upset it's not a major disaster... if your work isn't what you love then something isn't right'
condescending or hateful? Shrugs never sounded it to me... i'm naive though i guess.

― piscesx, Monday, 16 February 2009 13:00 (4 years ago) Permalink

Well, the other half of him -- and this is what's weirdest of all -- the other half truly IS enthusiastic about things that truly are beneath him. Dude has had gallery shows and released books of art made on PowerPoint, and has given eloquent lectures on how PowerPoint relates to the increasing boxing of our thoughts into computer space. He really does thing about banal things, a lot.

(I still suspect that he's kinda trying to keep up with his bigger intellectual brother Eno, who loves the little scamp and tussles his hair, but will always be the big brother. Neither here nor there in this context, though.)

― Bad Banana On Broadway (kenan), Monday, 16 February 2009 13:10 (4 years ago) Permalink

That's why I really like the True Stories film as a kind of not-quite-so subtle manifestation of his lyrics into a movie. It's a celebration of the mundane, not of the futuristic but of the present - treating shopping malls, mobile homes, project management, computer chips as works of artisanship. Kind of saying that in the future our architects and designers will be praised much in the same way as the ancient architects of the past.

On the other hand the tongue's also firmly in cheek. The natural "beauty" of a metal container is through its functionality and its function is to contain. There's that wonderful bit in the film where the business owner sits down with his family at the table and does a crazy choreographed serving routine that explains the structure of his business model with the different foods. I think I read something somewhere about Byrne's vision being "so normal it's crazy", and I totally agree with and love that aesthetic.

― the next grozart, Monday, 16 February 2009 13:25 (4 years ago) Permalink

Aw man, messed around with that for 10 minutes before I read this:

• Video content is only available to UK users

Hrm.

There's that wonderful bit in the film where the business owner sits down with his family at the table and does a crazy choreographed serving routine that explains the structure of his business model with the different foods.

Spalding Grey. Yes. Wonderful bit.

― Bad Banana On Broadway (kenan), Monday, 16 February 2009 13:27 (4 years ago) Permalink

Also, I will grant that "Found a Job" is the most 77-like song on the record. But the rest of it is borderline sinister. And then there's "Take Me To the River," which is just off the freakin' map.

― Bad Banana On Broadway (kenan), Monday, 16 February 2009 13:29 (4 years ago) Permalink

Gahhhhh this thread makes me want to listen to this album NOW. And my iPod and headphones are right in front of me, bbut I'm in my extremely shite work and can't. Frustrating.

Found A Job, FWIW.

― Chris in Belfast, Monday, 16 February 2009 14:04 (4 years ago) Permalink

See, I got the "Take me to the river" double single. "Found a job" on b-side, and "Love->Building and "Psycho Killer" on the other single.

How was that package not bought by *everyone* I'll never know...

But that's why I like "Found a job", even though I never bought "MSABAF"...

― Mark G, Monday, 16 February 2009 14:06 (4 years ago) Permalink

"Pretty soon now, I will be bitter."

― Bad Banana On Broadway (kenan), Friday, 20 February 2009 22:40 (4 years ago) Permalink

"I don't have to prove that I am creative."

― Bad Banana On Broadway (kenan), Friday, 20 February 2009 22:41 (4 years ago) Permalink

If I could vote over, I would go with "The Big Country". I just listened to the album and read the lyrics. I've always liked Talking Heads' slow country songs.

"Take Me to the River" always seemed out of place on this record, it was such a big radio hit and sounds more like Fear of Music.

― drunk dudes NOTM (james k polk), Friday, 20 February 2009 23:40 (4 years ago) Permalink

Great album...The only I'm not keen on is 'Take Me to the River'.

Weird to see that '77 photo in this thread...I used to be really fixated on Tina in the 77 cover photo when I was very young, and turned out gay.

"And you may ask yourself - well...how did I get here?" - indeed.

― Bob Six, Saturday, 21 February 2009 00:29 (4 years ago) Permalink

heh... Tina looks as boyish as any of them in that photo! Ah, youth.

― Bad Banana On Broadway (kenan), Saturday, 21 February 2009 01:18 (4 years ago) Permalink

Listening again and I wish I would have voted for Warning Sign. That little two-note guitar part on the verses "Right when David's singing 'Warning sign! Warning sign!'" into the sliding syncopated chords is so beautiful. And like Kenan said, SCARY. What a great song. I still Found a Job though. The only way it could possibly be improved is if they would have made it the first track of side B instead of the last of side A. It would have made such a perfect opener for a side!

― I shall always respect my elders (Z S), Saturday, 21 February 2009 01:31 (4 years ago) Permalink

Play Find the Typo in that paragraph. Hint: there are 32.

― I shall always respect my elders (Z S), Saturday, 21 February 2009 01:32 (4 years ago) Permalink

are nwot.

― Bad Banana On Broadway (kenan), Saturday, 21 February 2009 01:37 (4 years ago) Permalink

I always appreciated Sand in the Vasline for including the non-single "Warning Sign" -- it was the extra bit of taut weirdness that convinced me to buy the damn thing.

― The Screaming Lobster of Challops (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 21 February 2009 01:45 (4 years ago) Permalink

And for Sugar on my Tongue.

― I shall always respect my elders (Z S), Saturday, 21 February 2009 01:46 (4 years ago) Permalink

Its a matter of degrees
And that's true
That's true
It's taken to extremes
and that's why we work so hard to
Take that love away

^^^ The theory of emotional relativity

― Bad Banana On Broadway (kenan), Saturday, 21 February 2009 02:02 (4 years ago) Permalink

stay hungrayyyyyyyyyy

― s1ocki kong country (cankles), Saturday, 28 February 2009 12:40 (4 years ago) Permalink

I searched out this thread to revive it and...apparently make the same comments I already made almost a year ago. Good lord I love this album. Things are puttering along nicely until musical satan descends upon the scene and possesses Talking Heads starting in the last minute of "The Good Thing":

So I say:
I have adopted this and made it my own:
Cut back the weakness, reinforce what is strong.

"Warning Sign" starts after exactly a bar of empty space, and is creepy as fuck. Putting aside the lyrics, listen on headphones with the volume turned up and witness the really subtle swirling backward vocals leading into each phrase. At first I tended to agree with the person upthread who thought that Eno's presence on this album was largely unnoticeable, but after about the billionth listen his influence is apparent. "Girls Want To Be With The Girls" is a fine song, but to be honest for me its primary value is to serve as the perfect setup for "Found a Job", which again starts after a 4 beat pause and makes people shit their pants.

I love MSABAF more and more with each year, and now it's my favorite. One of the best things about Talking Heads is that each one of their first four albums have been my favorite at some point, and each time I couldn't conceive of a way that it could be any other way. What a great band.

― chicken sandwich CARL!! (Z S), Saturday, 9 January 2010 02:23 (3 years ago) Permalink

Gackazoid. Bottom seven songs are the whole entire reason this album rules. Single vote getter "With Our Love" is merely the greatest TH song ever & one of the greatest period (period). "Found a job" is the merest of conceptual clams next to the pink hearts exploding "girls want to be with the girls" but when they don't

fuh-huh-huh-huh-huckle-fuck-already

No wonder "Remain in Light" keeps winning polls as best Talking Heads record: because of this most utter fuckerottering tastelessness. If David Byrne comes from somewhere between Jonathan Richman and the Africanized future of pop music (that future that was expected, that future that didn't actually happen,) then the best songs on MSAB&F are the place where he owes nothing to nobody and, more importantly, where the Talking Heads as a band playing together show off their utterly original, dare-taking synthesis of KC & The Sunshine Band & Modern Lovers in the most utterly realized way. It's the second best record Eno was ever involved with after Another Green World.

{& this was the final VP pest at aye el ex}

― Vic Perry, Wednesday, 1 August 2012 03:44 (9 months ago) Permalink

I first discovered TH in a kind of bulk-buy of albums, starting with SMS and then acquiring all their albums in rapid succession. As such, I never really managed to separate a lot of the material form the first few albums - they all seemed to work together in a kind of temporal soup. But now I'm going through each album in chronological order, their career arc is starting to make much more sense and this is maybe song-for-song one of their best. I especially like the bassline towards the end of The Big Country.

― make like a steak and beef (dog latin), Monday, 12 November 2012 11:46 (6 months ago) Permalink

Yeah and Warning Sign and Stay Hungry are both fab.

― make like a steak and beef (dog latin), Monday, 12 November 2012 11:46 (6 months ago) Permalink

i love that every song on this got a least one vote. such a great album that i only discovered a few years back, probably 2008 or so.

probably going to spin this tonight because of this bump.

― Bee OK, Thursday, 15 November 2012 04:21 (6 months ago) Permalink

To help keep be focused, me and my guitar teacher have been going through the first three albums track by track. Some strange stuff going on here, especially as far as the song structures go. This is my fave of the first three.

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 15 November 2012 05:05 (6 months ago) Permalink

Me focused, not be focused.

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 15 November 2012 05:05 (6 months ago) Permalink

That's a great idea. I'd love to do something similar with bass guitar.

― make like a steak and beef (dog latin), Thursday, 15 November 2012 10:00 (6 months ago) Permalink